


All I've Ever Known

by DarkSeeker



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Implied Widowmaker | Amelie Lacroix/Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Slow build Widowmaker redemption, Talon - Freeform, Widowmaker POV, Widowmaker desereved better, family and friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 20:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8224172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSeeker/pseuds/DarkSeeker
Summary: A world of death and torture is the only world I've ever remembered. Whoever I was before Talon is a person I no longer am and never will be. They say it's possible to change a person, but you can't bring back someone from the dead. And even if you do, they'll never be the same; they should've guessed that by what happened the first time. A world I only know is a world I can never forget, so how do they expect for me to completely change who I am for a second time?





	1. Prologue: Death That Breathes Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Josie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josie/gifts).



> Dedicated to my really good friend Josie, who talked about this and I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Welcome to our world of angst, I hope you enjoy it ;)

Prologue: Death That Breathes Life

The way of Talon is all I’ve ever known.

               Through all that I’ve learned, I’ve heard tales and legends on how I had a life before that of Talon, but of course the organization, especially our Leader, has made sure to drill into me that all of those are lies.

               Of course, all legends are made through wispy webs of truths.

               Although, I know better than anyone to defy the rules of Talon. If He says they’re lies, then that’s all they ever will be. You learn that the hard way when you first join. They’ll hurt you. Torture you. To the point of near death.

               No.

               Not death.

               Only to point where you wish you were dead.

               Soon, though. Soon you realize that Talon is the only way people will truly be set free. I remember the day of my first kill. Months and months set up after Talon had fashioned me into the great killer I would become. The way I watched the life fade away out of _his_ eyes. It was and only will be the last time I ever felt alive.

               At least, that was what I believed.

               Funny how death is what brings me life once again.

…

               I never knew His real name, even if I did, it was from a time that no longer belonged to me. We all knew Him as Reaper. A man literally brought back from the grave; a trail of smoke always following His non-existent footsteps; an ethereal being, whose mutilated structure was always hidden behind a bone white mask. It’s a surprise how it managed to stay as white as it was, considering the blood He has shed. The massacres He has put Himself in the middle of. They say He absorbs the life of those He kills, keeping Himself immortal. No one knows how He became the way He did. They’re all too scared to ask.

               I’ve always assumed. Assumed that He and I are the same. I assumed He inflected the same pain that He experienced on to me. I don’t remember much. Just flashes of searing hot pain, days without water, weeks without eating, months of forcing my eyes open to watch tortuous things. Things that to this day, I can’t even talk about. He was the one to watch over me, to make sure that I was crafted into the perfect second in command. I was handpicked, maybe by chance or maybe by fate, to become the deadliest shot in the world, to coincide with the deadliest man in the world.

               Let it be known, I don’t really believe in fate. If there was a reason for the things that have been done for me, it was not because the hands of the universe moved me to those places. Unlike Him. He always talked about how He was created for greatness, that fate brought Him here to rid the world of _them._

_Them_. Overwatch. They’re the reason why we hide in fear. Fear of ourselves. Fear that we’ll never amount to the greatest thing that humanity can ever achieve. The feeling of being alive.

               You may be alive, but are you truly? People walk around as empty husks, droning out the bores of life day to day. Alive, but not truly living, just existing. One of our missions is to eradicate the Omnics that curse our world, an ironic simile to how humanity is today; however, I know how it feels to actually be alive, granted the only way to achieve it is through the winning shot of the kill, but I died long before my time at talon.

               Humans eventually revert back to the way they’re supposed to be. They proved that by instantly turning against the program that was trying to “help” them. They turned against the very people who force fed them their fears. Proving that soon, very soon, we will soon liberate the world for what it really is.

               A slaughterhouse of mayhem.

               Although, first, we have to rid the world of those who think they’re helping humanity. They ran into hiding for a long time, but when Reaper went to find information on where they were hiding, he accidentally jumpstarted the restart of Overwatch, which was rapidly gaining numbers, much to the chagrin of the United Nations, and Talon, but it makes the hunt all the more exciting.

               Nothing excites spiders like me more than the hunt and going in for the kill.

               My name was Amélie Lacroix. Widowmaker is the name of the life I will always lead, for the woman that you once knew, is long gone.


	2. Failure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we get a bit more information on Talon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos everyone!  
> Again future chapters will be longer.

Ch.1 Failure

               Dark.

               That was the only way you explain what Talon was like. Dark and cold. They say that the cold puts you on edge, but I always wondered if the group really needed to be on edge more than we already were. Constantly being known as enemy number one (besides the Omnics) and being on the run does things to you. You’re always looking over your shoulder for that one person that you swear is following you. We hide in the shadows because the dark was the only place we knew; the only place that we felt safe. The cold though, the cold took our anxieties to a heightened level, where somehow you could always feel the slightest change in the air. Maybe it was to help us, but I would never know. After a while of living in the dark and cold, that’s all you become, and when all you are is what you live in, where does the first one start and the other one end?

               “Widowmaker?”

               “Sir?” I didn’t have to take my eyes off the wall I had been staring at for hours to know who it was. You could never hear Him enter or exit a room, but you knew when He was there. An ever looming shadow just out of the corner of your eye. A presence you can’t ignore. His voice is deep, contorted, as if the voice wasn’t actually his own. He talked as if His own voice was foreign to Him, even after years of having it, and even though the pitch in his voice never went any higher, it never failed to grate against your ears like nails on a chalkboard. Reminding you that it was Him in charge and all you’ll ever be is a pawn in his game.

               A game I never asked to play.

               “I’m assuming you’re ready for your next mission.”

               “Of course, sir.” Him and I never talked. When we did, it was something like this. Always asking about the mission, always making sure I was still following His command. As if He had any doubt. He knew the power He held over us, it was just some sick satisfaction to hear us confirm it out loud.

               A satisfaction I never failed to please.

               “You will not fail.” It wasn’t a question, nor a statement, it was a command. If I were to fail, there would be severe consequences. I have no emotions, but I’m sure the tingling sensation I felt go up my spine was fear.

               Dark, cold, fear.

               “Of course, sir.”

               And with that he was gone. I never saw him leave, but I could feel the presence no longer there. He was a ghost, a ghost that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

               I turned away from the wall and made my way to where I would leave for my mission. I wasn’t excited, I wasn’t scared, I was just… prepared. In Talon, they teach you not to have emotions. Emotions get you attached and eventually ruin you. It was why Overwatch didn’t work out the first time, they had too much emotion, too much attachment. I knew better than to get attached. There wasn’t anyone to get attached to anyway.

               I was alone.

               But at least in my solidarity I could find reassurance. For myself and for Talon. My next mission to was to get rid of some of the new members of Overwatch; Lucio Correia dos Santos and Hana “D.Va” Song. Easy enough. Considering how fast the original team fell apart the moment they lost someone in their team, this kill should be the one to start the quick downward spiral. It was only fitting that I would be the one to do this job, for I was the one who started it years ago.

               I remember I was out for a mission and _they_ saw me. There was no way I could win against the four of them with just me, especially at the close distance that they were to me, so I had no choice but to let them take me. They kept calling me “Amélie” and told me how happy my husband would be to see me and how they would “fix” me. There was nothing to fix, I was a cold hearted killer and that’s all I ever would be.

               Two weeks into being captive at Overwatch, they left _him_ charge to watch over me. I never knew him, and I don’t think I ever truly will, but for some reason _he_ had a soft spot for me. How easy it was to overpower _him_ and killed _him_ in _his_ sleep. That day was the first day I knew what it meant to be alive, the way _he_ looked at me as _his_ life drained away, filling me up with what he was rapidly losing. That day I knew what I had to do, that day I knew that never again would I fail the will of Talon.

               Until this day.

               This was the day where I would ruin Overwatch once more. I never knew how Reaper came to know of locations where Overwatch members would be, but I learned not to ask. There are a lot of things you learn in Talon, but it’s all for the better.

               Wasn’t it?

…

               I heard them before I saw them. They were so loud, so obnoxious, that I couldn’t wait for the moment my finger pulled the trigger. When they finally came into sight, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They were only mere children. How could two young kids start uprisings and become the world’s best mech pilot? I was sure Overwatch had resorted to picking at straws, but I never knew they would stoop so low to hire children on their team. Although, what had to be done, had to be done, whether they were children or not.

               The moment my finger touched the trigger, time seemed to slow down. This is what it meant to be a sniper. Precision needed to be so clear, the shot so clean, that you needed to slow down everything, even time. As a sniper you need to focus on nothing but your targets, for if you miss, everything can go wrong in a single second.

               That was my fatal mistake.

               I went to pull further on the trigger, ready to strike, but what I failed to notice was the noise of someone bounding towards me until it was too late. I fired. But before I did, I was knocked to my side and pinned, causing my shot to go in a completely different direction than intended.

               I looked up after being dazed for a moment to see I was being pinned down by… a monkey?

               No, not any monkey. Winston. The one that Reaper tried to get Overwatch information from.

               No, no, no, no, it was all wrong. He wasn’t supposed to be there, the mission was supposed to be a simple shoot and run. Not this, not disturbed by another Overwatch member. I wasn’t informed that he would be there with the two. I wasn’t prepared for this part of the mission. I- I…

               I failed.

               I knew that if I stayed there, I could be taken back to Overwatch, or worse, killed, so I did the only thing I could think of.

               I ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make sure to like and comment please!

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think of it!  
> Thanks everyone!  
> (Later chapters will be longer just FYI)


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